The AMA Handbook of Leadership: A Book Review by Bob Morris
The AMA Handbook of Leadership
Marshall Goldsmith, John Baldoni, and Sarah McArthur, Co-Editors
AMACOM (2010)
What we have in a single volume are 23 essays from 29 contributors, including the three co-editors (Marshall Goldsmith, John Baldoni, and Sarah McArthur), that – together – provide 360º perspectives on leadership. The book’s objective is to enable each reader, in James Kouzes’ words, “to more effectively forge ahead, develop people, engage people, facilitate change, and take the lead.” Continuing to address the reader directly, Kouzes adds, “Your challenge in moving from the page to practice is to make the lessons genuinely yours. It’s essential that you do that, because making them yours is the only route to authentic leadership. Making them yours is the only route to becoming the kind of leader others will want to follow.”
Here in Dallas at the Farmers Market near the downtown area, several merchants offer complimentary slices of fresh fruit as samples. In that same spirit, I now offer brief excerpts (albeit out of context) from three of the essays.
“Today, if we are not developing a richly diverse organization, led by a wonderfully diverse team of leaders, then we are already an organization of the past, led by leaders of the past…The initiative, the imperative for a bright future. Is grounded by values that are palpable. With values that we live by, as mission-focused, values-based, and demographics-driven, we lead into the future. This is the organizational life we are building, the leadership life we are leading. We are the future.” Frances Hesselbein (Pages 9 and 12)
“In my many years of watching leaders successfully grow new leaders, I have observed that three characteristics separate the winners from the also-rans. First, successful leaders have an attitude that supports learning and growth…Second, successful leaders provide feedback and tell the truth…Finally, successful leaders create cultures that value inclusion, not exclusion, and they know that every person can make valuable contributions to the team when encouraged and given the opportunity.” Beverly Kaye (Page 80)
“The first task for change makers is to create real awareness at every level of an organization that (1) these practices [based on fear and depression] create serious problems with powerful negative effects that impede success, and (2) there are policies that make success much more likely. In order to have an impact, the message must resonate with people – it must be an honest, simple, brief, and focused message. It must begin with a sense of alarm that when the core issues are faced, the right changes can be made and then success and a better future become likely. Experience teaches us that this message will need to be repeated often.” Judith M. Bardwick (Page 114)
Note: In Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, Verne Harnish suggests that supervisors keep repeating the “message” they are trying to deliver to their direct-reports until they begin to mock and mimic them.
I urge those who share my high regard for this book to check out Extraordinary Leadership: Addressing the Gaps in Senior Executive Development co-edited by Kerry A. Bunker, Douglas T. Hall, and Kathy E. Kram as well as Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice co-edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana. I also recommend Charles S. Jacobs’ Management Rewired: Why Feedback Doesn’t Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science.
Q #96: How to reduce (if not eliminate) attrition of valued employees?
In this series, Bob Morris poses a key question and then responds to it with material from one or more of the business books he has reviewed for Amazon and Borders.
In Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching and Keeping the Best People (Revised and Updated Edition), Bradford Smart explains why the average cost of a mis-hire is 24 times the annual salary. (That’s right: 24 times the annual salary.) I am unaware of what the average total cost of losing a highly-valued employee is but it must certainly be substantial.
Experts on employee attrition (notably Leigh Branham, Beverly Kaye, and Mark Murphy) seem to agree on the most common reasons. Here are six:
1. The job and/or workplace of the company are/is not what was expected
2. There is a lack of confidence in the company’s senior management
3. Performance expectations are unclear or inconsistent.
4. The criteria for measuring performance are also unclear or inconsistent.
5. Little (if any) feedback, mentoring, coaching, etc. is provided by supervisor.
6. Prospects for career advancement at the company are poor.
The most highly-regarded employers are those that avoid making these and other mistakes. They have almost no loss of valued employees. Moreover, they always have far more job applicants (including those currently employed by competitors) than positions available.
Check out Branham’s Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business: 24 Ways to Hang on to Your Most Valuable Talent and his more recent The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late (2005) as well as Kaye’s Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay (4th edition) and Murphy’s The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention: Cutting Edge Strategies for Keeping Your Best People.
Comments, questions, requests, or suggestions? Please share them. They will be most welcome and I thank you for them. Best regards, Bob
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